


Roses For A King

by dragonshost



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, i wrote two versions of this, this is the happier one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 15:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10766877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonshost/pseuds/dragonshost
Summary: It was time to let them wither away.





	Roses For A King

At some point in his very long unlife, Mard Geer had come across the human custom of presenting flowers.

It had fascinated the demon.

The policy of gifting blooms, hacked from their life bearing roots for the recipient to gaze upon their slow death, was of interest alone - but the fact that humans would give them to each other as a sign of _affection_? Truly, humans could be as morbid and heinous as any demon of Tartaros.

Not just as a representation of affection and regard, either. Humans used them for every purpose imaginable. Friendship, family, get well soon, please forgive me? I love you, here, watch these beautiful things die an agonizingly slow and tortuous death prolonged even further through the use of slimy white packets of "plant food" specifically engineered to keep the plant tethered to the precipice between life and death on a spider-silk thread?

Humanity had even crafted a language around flowers and their arrangements - using not just the petals, but also the leaves, and stems, and seed pods. To be used in a variety of ways. Including communicating hatred, if necessary.

It was the most elegant and poignant social construct that the species had ever achieved, as far as Mard Geer was concerned. He was actually somewhat impressed.

So impressed, in fact, that he had tried to cultivate blooms of his own from his Thorn Curse. To... mixed results. While a constant stream of ethernano was necessary to sustain the thorns long enough to flower, it wasn't too different from his arrangement with Tempesta. However, it seemed that ethernano alone was insufficient in terms of the nutrients need to produce the largest, most vibrant blossoms.

Humans, however, made adequate fertilizer. Though there were plenty of better alternatives, humans were something Mard Geer was never in short supply of.

It only mimicked the natural order of things, after all. Humans ate plants, and when they died, the plants in turn consumed them. Mard Geer merely... sped the process along.

Mard Geer inspected the petals of the roses he'd grown over the centuries. They dwarfed all the conventional human varieties - a single bloom could not fit in the palms of both his hands. Glossy, and soft, their vibrant hue had long been a source of pride to the demon. He adored their blood-soaked majesty, fit only for the King of Underworld's domain.

But it was time to let them wither away.

For the woman with hair of woven sunlight, and eyes as rich as the earth that nurtured tamer blooms, would not appreciate or condone the source of their beauty as Mard Geer did. No matter how he couched the reality in flowing prose.

The only rose he desired now was his Queen, who shone like the stars.

So he would let these recede back into ethernano, releasing the countless souls trapped inside the scarlet petals, and twisting, thorned vines.

In their place he would nurture something else.

Perhaps he might even grow himself a heart.


End file.
